Premium
Characterization of microsatellite loci in the primitive ant Nothomyrmecia macrops Clark
Author(s) -
Sanetra Matthias,
Crozier Ross H.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
molecular ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.619
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1365-294X
pISSN - 0962-1083
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-294x.2000.10538.x
Subject(s) - biology , library science , genealogy , history , computer science
[Extract] Although a number of microsatellite loci have been isolated for some species of 'primitive ants' in the subfamily Ponerinae [e.g. Diacamma (Doums 1999), Gnamptogenys (Giraut et al. 1999)], the availability of genetic markers for the unique Australian ant Nothomyrmecia macrops has been poor. Of 16 allozyme loci studied by Ward & Taylor (1981) only one locus was polymorphic. Colonies appear to have low nestmate relatedness (Ward & Taylor 1981) but these estimates must be interpreted with caution because of limited sample size. N. macrops has great significance in evolutionary sociobiology because it possesses a relatively large proportion of ancestral characters (e.g. Taylor 1978). Thus, a more detailed knowledge of the genetics of this ant is desirable and will perhaps shed new light on a number of issues related to the evolution of eusociality in the Hymenoptera. In this paper we describe the isolation of variable microsatellite loci that can be used for precise colony- and population-level genetic analyses in Nothomyrmecia, and in the most closely related subfamily, the Myrmeciinae